MINNEAPOLIS — Taj McWilliams-Franklin has been going for months, years even.
She's 41 years old, and she barely got a break before this year's WNBA season after returning from overseas ball in Poland. It's been WNBA, overseas, repeat for the veteran for more than a decade, and relaxation has become an alien concept.
Even on Thursday afternoon, as the rest of the Lynx locker room feasted on cake to celebrate the team's three Olympians and the beginning of a five-week break from WNBA basketball, McWilliams-Franklin wasn't ready to relax. Instead, she was planning her time off, getting ready to travel, begin a new job and work out all the while.
For McWilliams-Franklin, the break -- which lasts until Aug. 17 -- isn't a time to kick back and do nothing. In fact, none of the Lynx look at the stretch like that, but for each player, the time off will serve a different purpose.
For injured players, it will be time to rehab. For the others, still healthy but undeniably worn out by the first half of the season, rest will be a priority. Most workouts will focus on drill work and targeting specific weak spots, but no two players' list of goals will be the same.
"I think it's about understanding your own self," Candice Wiggins said. "Like my situation is going to be a little bit different from hers, which is different from hers."
While many sports put a limit on how often a team can practice, the WNBA does the opposite during the Olympics break, mandating that teams can't go longer than seven days without practicing. Coach Cheryl Reeve has every intention of giving her players those seven days, though. She knows how important it is for them to get some time away, to travel home and take care of other obligations.
For Wiggins, the break means a trip to Los Angeles, where she plans to "live the California life." Wiggins said that she has a propensity to push herself too hard, so she's going to have to work to relax and not go overboard during her days of freedom.
McWilliams-Franklin, though, doesn't have the luxury of relaxation. She's looking forward to spending one-on-one time with her daughter and to starting her new job as an assistant coach of the Rice University women's basketball team. She'll be traveling between her home in San Antonio and Rice's Houston campus, finally meeting the players and getting the logistics of her new job in order. It'll be a busy time, but that's what McWilliams-Franklin wants.
"As a (41-year-old), I don't get a lot of rest, because if I do, it takes me so much longer to come back than those babies. So I'll be swimming, yoga -- I normally do that anyways, so I don't really get a break."
The nine non-Olympians will all choose to spend their break in different locations and doing a variety of workouts, but that doesn't worry Reeve. She knows that her team encompasses a wide range of players, from older to very young and with all different kinds of needs. Above all else, she's confident that her players can recognize how to best use their breaks.
"This is a great time, but I think all of these guys -- I've got smart players, they get it -- they have self-initiative," Reeve said. "From a motivation standpoint, I'm not going to have to draw out of them every day."
That's fortunate, because even Reeve has other commitments -- though team-related -- during the break. She'll be traveling to London, not just to support Maya Moore, Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus, but also to do some scouting. The Lynx hold the rights to three international players who will be competing in London: Australia's Rachel Jarry, Brazil's Damiris Dantas and Slovenia's Nika Baric. Jarry was drafted in 2011, Dantas and Baric in 2012.
The gold medal game is scheduled for Aug. 11, and if the women play that day, Reeve said she hopes they return to the U.S. as soon as possible. If they were to get back on Aug. 12, they'd have five days before the Lynx resume play against the Mystics. That would allow them a few days off before rejoining practices with the team and getting back into the rhythm of the WNBA season.
From the outside, the five-week break can seem like a lot. With so many different destinations and goals, it will be hard to keep track of where each of the players is at any given moment, but that's the situation that the WNBA has come to expect. It's been scheduling Olympics breaks like this one for years, and they've become normal over the years.
Reeve, who's been in the league since 2001, is no stranger to Olympic breaks, and she knows to expect one every four years. Between those interruptions and the changes to training camp because of the World Championships, the coach has seen it all. She's learned to adjust and move on.
"It's really not that bad . . . frankly, for the players," Reeve said. "I think they'll tell you a seven-day vacation, seven consecutive days, is not something that they have very often. I think they welcome the time off and the rest, I really do."
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